JP7411866B2 - Granular food heat treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a granular food heat treatment apparatus and a granular food heat treatment method.

Granular food heat processing equipment is a so-called blanching equipment, and generally heats granular food, which is a raw material for processed food, using boiling water and high-temperature steam, and then heats the heated granular food using cold water and low-temperature steam. It uses air etc. for cooling.

Such a granular food heat processing apparatus is described in, for example, Patent Document 1.

The granular food heat processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1 includes a processing container, an inlet and an outlet of the processing container, a means for venting or pressurizing the processing container, a means for heating the raw material in the processing container with steam, and a and means for cooling the raw material. The processing vessel is a generally cylindrical vessel in which the raw material to be heat treated is deposited at the bottom, and the axis is substantially horizontal. The raw material heating means is provided in the processing vessel, one end is connected to a steam source, is capable of vibration around the axis of the processing vessel, and has a number of holes through which steam for heating the raw material flows out. It has an agitation device that is open.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2-242660

However, when the main purpose is to clean the surface of granular foods that are raw materials for processed foods, conventional granular food heat treatment equipment heats the inside of the granular food, leaving the inside of the granular food raw. It is very difficult to maintain the condition.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention provides a granular food heat processing apparatus that can suppress heating of the inside of granular food, which is a raw material for processed food, and maintain the raw state of the inside of granular food, and The purpose of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment method.

A granular food heat processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a container having a space inside, a food placement part disposed in the space and arranging granular food that is a raw material for a processed food, and a food placement part in the space. a steam supply section that is located below the space and supplies steam to the granular food from below; and a steam supply section that is located above the food placement section in the space and supplies cold water to the granular food. A cold water supply section that supplies cold water from above. The container has a container lower part having a conical cylindrical lower container body whose inner diameter increases from the bottom to the top, and a container upper part having a circular container upper body in plan view. The steam supply is arranged in the lower container body and the cold water supply is arranged in the upper container body. The lower part of the container is configured to be able to reciprocate between a raised position where it is connected to the food placement section and a lowered position where it is disconnected from the food placement section, and a lowered position where the upper portion of the container is connected to the food placement section. It is configured to be able to reciprocate between the position and the raised position where the connection with the food placement section is released.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a granular food heat processing apparatus that can suppress heating of the inside of the granular food that is a raw material of the processed food and maintain the raw state of the inside of the granular food; A method for heat treating granular foods can be provided.

1 is a schematic side sectional view of a granular food heat processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a schematic side sectional view of a granular food heat processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of the food placement section. FIG. 3 is a schematic front view of the food placement section. FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a food placement section. It is a schematic side sectional view of the granular food heat processing apparatus based on the 1st modification. It is a schematic side sectional view of the granular food heat processing apparatus based on the 2nd modification. It is a schematic side sectional view of the granular food heat processing apparatus based on the 3rd modification.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[Granular food heat treatment equipment]
The granular food heat processing apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is also referred to as a granular food sterilization processing apparatus. This granular food heat processing apparatus 1 is an apparatus intended for particularly cleaning the surface of granular foods such as brown rice and removing foreign substances such as pebbles and sand from the granular foods.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the granular food heat processing apparatus 1 includes a container (processing container) 3 having a space (chamber) 2 inside, and a container (processing container) 3 disposed in the space 2, in which granular food, which is a raw material for processed food, is heated. A food placement section (bread) 5 in which food 4 is placed.

The granular food heat processing apparatus 1 also includes a steam supply section 6 that is disposed within the space 2 and below the food placement section 5 and supplies steam to the granular food 4 from below.

Further, the granular food heat processing apparatus 1 includes a cold water supply section 7 that is disposed in the space 2 above the food placement section 5 and supplies cold water to the granular food 4 from above.

The container 3 has a container lower part 11 that constitutes the lower part of the container 3, and a container upper part 12 that constitutes the upper part of the container 3.

The lower part 11 of the container includes a lower part body 13 having a conical cylindrical shape and an inner diameter increasing from the bottom to the top. The container lower body 13 has a mortar-shaped conical surface 14 inside thereof. The lower container 11 also includes an annular flange portion 15 extending upward and downward from the upper end of the lower container main body 13, and a bottomed cylindrical drainage portion 16 connected to the lower end of the lower container main body 13. It is configured with

A steam supply section 6 that supplies relatively high temperature steam to the granular food 4 from below is arranged at the lower end of the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13). The steam supply section 6 has a cylindrical steam supply cylinder part 17 having an opening at the upper end, and a steam supply source 18 (see FIG. 1) is connected to the steam supply cylinder part 17.

Further, a rotating blade (propeller) 21 for diffusing the steam from the steam supply section 6 is disposed at the lower end of the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13). The rotary blade 21 is rotatably mounted on a fixed shaft 22, and the fixed shaft 22 is held in the steam supply cylinder section 17 via a bolt 23. The rotating blade 21 is arranged above the opening of the steam supply cylinder 17 and is configured to receive steam from the steam supply cylinder 17 and rotate on its own.

The outer diameter D1 (see FIG. 2) of the rotary blade 21 is set larger than the outer diameter of the steam supply cylinder section 17, for example. The outer diameter D1 of the rotating blade 21 is set to, for example, about 50 mm. Further, the height H in the vertical direction from the upper end of the steam supply cylinder section 17 to the vertical center of the rotating blade 21 (see FIG. 2) is set to about 20 mm to 60 mm.

Further, a drain pipe (drain pipe) 24 is connected to the drain section 16 of the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13). This drain pipe 24 is configured to discharge moisture in the steam from the steam supply section 6 and moisture in the cold water from the cold water supply section 7 from the inside of the container 3 (space section 2) to the outside.

On the other hand, at the upper part of the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13), there is a baffle plate (baffle plate) for distributing (uniformly dispersing) the steam from the steam supply part 6 so that it does not concentrate in one place in the food arrangement part 5. plate) 25 is arranged. The baffle plate 25 is disposed directly above the steam supply cylinder portion 17 in the vertical direction, and in the radial center of the lower container body 13 in the radial direction of the lower container body 13. Further, the baffle plate 25 is held to the container lower body 13 using, for example, a wire 26.

The lower part 11 of the container has two positions: a raised position (see FIG. 1) where the container lower part 11 is connected to the food placement section 5 by an actuator (not shown), and a lowered position (see FIG. 2) where the connection with the food placement section 5 is released. It is configured so that it can be moved back and forth between the two.

On the other hand, the container upper part 12 includes a container upper body (lid portion) 31 that is circular in plan view. Further, the container upper part 12 is configured to have an annular flange portion 37 extending downward from the outer peripheral edge of the container upper body 31.

A cold water supply section 7 that supplies cold water to the granular food 4 from above is arranged in the upper part of the container (container upper main body 31). This cold water supply section 7 has a plurality of discharge nozzles 32 having discharge ports at the lower end, and each discharge nozzle 32 is connected to a cold water supply source 33 (see FIG. 1).

The container upper part 12 has two positions: a lowered position (see FIG. 1) where the container upper part 12 is connected to the food placement section 5 by an actuator (not shown), and a raised position (see FIG. 2) where the connection with the food placement section 5 is released. It is configured so that it can be moved back and forth between the two.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the food placement section 5 includes a cylindrical frame portion 34 that is sandwiched from above and below between the container lower body 13 and the container upper body 31, and is arranged inside the frame portion 34. The net portion 35 includes a net portion 35. On the net portion 35 of the food placement section 5, granular food 4, which is a raw material for processed food, is placed.

The outer diameter D2 (see FIG. 2) of the frame portion 34 of the food placement portion 5 is set smaller than the inner diameter of the flange portion 15 of the container lower portion 11, so that when the food placement portion 5 is connected to the container lower portion 11, , the lower end of the frame portion 34 is disposed inside the flange portion 37 of the container upper portion 12. An annular sealing member 36 is disposed at the lower end of the frame portion 34 for sealing the gap between the food placement portion 5 and the container lower portion 11.

Further, the outer diameter D2 (see FIG. 2) of the frame portion 34 of the food arrangement portion 5 is set smaller than the inner diameter of the flange portion 37 of the container upper portion 12, so that when the food arrangement portion 5 is connected to the container upper portion 12, In this case, the upper end of the frame portion 34 is placed inside the flange portion 37 of the container upper portion 12.

The net portion 35 of the food placement section 5 is such that the granular food 4 to be subjected to heat treatment (sterilization treatment) by the granular food heat treatment device 1 is placed on the net portion 35 . Therefore, the mesh roughness (mesh) of the net portion 35 is set such that, based on the grain size of the granular food 4, the granular food 4 is not allowed to pass therethrough, but steam and cold water are allowed to pass through. set to size.

Moreover, moving members 41 for moving the food placement section 5 along rails, guides, conveyors, etc. (not shown) are arranged on both sides of the food placement section 5 in a plan view. This moving member 41 is joined to the frame portion 34 using a connecting fitting 42 and a square pipe 43. The moving member 41 and the connecting fitting 42, the connecting fitting 42 and the square pipe 43, and the square pipe 43 and the frame portion 34 of the food arrangement section 5 are each joined by, for example, welding.

The food placement unit 5 includes at least a pretreatment position (not shown) where the granular food 4 is subjected to pretreatment, and a heat treatment position (see FIG. 2) where the granular food 4 is subjected to heat treatment (sterilization treatment). It is configured to be movable to a post-processing position (not shown) where the granular food 4 is subjected to post-processing.

The container 3 (container lower part 11, container upper part 12), food placement part 5, etc. shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are formed of a material having a certain degree of corrosion resistance (eg, stainless steel material).

[Heat treatment method for granular food]
Next, a heat treatment method (sterilization treatment method) for the granular food 4 according to this embodiment will be explained.

First, the granular food 4, which is a raw material for processed food, is placed on the net portion 35 of the food placement section 5 (food placement step).

Next, the food placement section 5 is moved to a pre-processing position (not shown). At this pretreatment position, the granular food 4 placed on the net portion 35 of the food placement section 5 is pretreated (pretreatment step).

Next, the food placement section 5 is moved from the pretreatment position (not shown) to the heat treatment position shown in FIG. 2 . At this heat treatment position, the granular food 4 placed on the net portion 35 of the food placement section 5 is subjected to heat treatment (sterilization treatment).

As shown in FIG. 1, steam at a relatively high temperature (for example, 120° C.) is supplied to the granular food 4 placed on the net portion 35 of the food placement portion 5 at the lower steam supply portion 6 (steam supply cylinder portion). 17) (steam supply step). It is preferable that the supply of steam from the steam supply cylinder section 17 to the granular food 4 (steam supply step) be relatively short (for example, about ten seconds).

Although not shown, immediately after the steam supply step, relatively low-temperature cold water is supplied from the upper cold water supply section 7 (discharge nozzle 32) to the granular food 4 placed on the net portion 35 of the food placement section 5. (cold water supply process). It is preferable that the supply of cold water from the discharge nozzle 32 to the granular food 4 (cold water supply step) is also carried out in a relatively short period of time, similarly to the steam supply step.

Then, the food placement section 5 is moved from the heat treatment position shown in FIG. 2 to a post-processing position (not shown). At this post-processing position, the granular food 4 placed on the net portion 35 of the food placement section 5 is post-processed (post-processing step).

The effects of this embodiment will be explained below.

(1) The granular food heat processing apparatus 1 includes a container 3 having a space 2 therein, and a food placement section 5 disposed in the space 2 and arranging the granular food 4, which is a raw material for a processed food. The granular food heat processing apparatus 1 also includes a steam supply section 6 that is disposed within the space 2 and below the food placement section 5 and supplies steam to the granular food 4 from below. Further, the granular food heat processing apparatus 1 includes a cold water supply section 7 that is disposed in the space 2 above the food placement section 5 and supplies cold water to the granular food 4 from above.

According to the granular food heat processing apparatus 1 of this embodiment, heating of the inside of the granular food 4 can be suppressed, and the inside of the granular food 4 can be maintained in a raw state.

(2) The container 3 includes a container lower part 11 having a conical cylindrical lower container main body 13 whose inner diameter increases from the bottom to the top, and a container upper part 12 having a circular container upper main body 31 in plan view. have The steam supply section 6 is arranged in the container lower body 13, and the cold water supply section 7 is arranged in the container upper body 31.

By configuring the container 3 in this way, the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be uniformly diffused along the conical surface 14 that is the inner surface of the container lower body 13, and the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be spread over the food. It becomes possible to avoid concentration on a specific location in the arrangement section 5.

(3) The food placement section 5 has a frame portion 34 that is sandwiched from above and below between the container lower body 13 and the container upper body 31, and a net portion 35 that is disposed inside the frame portion 34, The granular food product 4 is placed on the net portion 35.

By configuring the food placement section 5 in this way, the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be uniformly diffused in the food placement section 5, and the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be distributed to specific locations in the food placement section 5. It becomes possible to avoid concentrating on

(4) The container 3 has a baffle plate 25 disposed on the container lower body 13 to disperse the steam from the steam supply section 6 so that it does not concentrate in one place in the food placement section 5.

Since the container 3 has the baffle plate 25 in this way, the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be evenly dispersed in the space 2 inside the container 3, and the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be distributed to the food placement section. It becomes possible to avoid concentrating on a specific location in 5.

(5) The container 3 has rotating blades 21 arranged in the lower container body 13 and for diffusing the steam from the steam supply section 6.

Since the container 3 has the rotary blades 21 in this way, the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be uniformly diffused in the space 2 inside the container 3, and the steam from the steam supply section 6 can be distributed to the food placement section. It becomes possible to avoid concentrating on a specific location in 5.

Hereinafter, granular food heat processing apparatuses 1A, 1B, and 1C according to modified examples of the embodiments of the present invention will be described.

In the granular food heat processing apparatus 1A according to the first modification shown in FIG. 6, a non-rotating disk (plate) is provided at the lower end of the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13) for diffusing the steam from the steam supply unit 6. 51 are arranged. This non-rotating disk 51 is non-rotatably mounted on a fixed shaft 22, and this fixed shaft 22 is held in the steam supply cylinder section 17 via a bolt 23.

In the granular food heat processing apparatus 1B according to the second modification shown in FIG. 7, a porous cylinder (long pipe) 52 for diffusing the steam from the steam supply section 6 is provided inside the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13). It is located. This porous cylinder 52 is attached to the steam supply cylinder part 17 via a bolt 23, the upper end of the porous cylinder 52 is closed with a cap 53, and the gap between the lower end of the porous cylinder 52 and the steam supply cylinder part 17 is closed. A gap is formed for steam supply.

In the granular food heat processing apparatus 1C according to the third modification shown in FIG. 8, a porous disk (punched metal) is provided at the lower end of the container lower part 11 (container lower body 13) for diffusing the steam from the steam supply section 6. 54 are arranged. A holeless cylinder (short pipe) 55 is attached to the steam supply cylinder part 17 via a bolt 23, the upper end of the holeless cylinder 55 is closed with a cap 53, and the lower end of the holeless cylinder 55 and the steam supply cylinder 55 are closed. A gap is formed between the cylinder part 17 and the cylinder part 17 for supplying steam. The above-mentioned porous disk 54 is attached to the upper end of the cap 53.

According to the granular food heat processing apparatuses 1A, 1B, and 1C according to these modified examples, it is possible to obtain the same effects as the granular food heat processing apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

By the way, the granular food heat treatment apparatus and the granular food heat treatment method of the present invention have been explained by taking the above-mentioned embodiment as an example, but are not limited to this embodiment, and other embodiments may be used without departing from the gist of the present invention. Various types can be adopted.

1, 1A, 1B, 1C Granular food heat treatment device 2 Space section 3 Container 4 Granular food 5 Food arrangement section 6 Steam supply section 7 Cold water supply section 11 Container lower part 12 Container upper part 13 Container lower body 21 Rotating blade 31 Container upper body 34 Frame Part 35 Net part

Claims (6)

a container having a space inside;
a food placement section disposed in the space and arranging granular foods that are raw materials for processed foods;
a steam supply section that is disposed in the space below the food placement section and supplies steam to the granular food from below;
a cold water supply section disposed above the food placement section in the space and supplying cold water to the granular food from above ;
The container is
a container lower body having a conical cylindrical lower container body whose inner diameter increases from the bottom to the top;
a container upper body having a circular container upper body in plan view;
The steam supply section is arranged in the lower body of the container,
The cold water supply section is arranged in the upper body of the container,
The lower part of the container is configured to be able to reciprocate between a raised position where it is connected to the food placement section and a lowered position where it is disconnected from the food placement section,
The upper part of the container is configured to be able to reciprocate between a lowered position where it is connected to the food placement section and a raised position where it is disconnected from the food placement section .
Granular food heat treatment equipment. The granular food heat processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an actuator for reciprocating the lower part of the container and the upper part of the container . The granular food heat processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein moving members for moving the food placement section are provided on both sides of the food placement section. The food placement section is
a cylindrical frame portion sandwiched between the container lower body and the container upper body from the vertical direction;
a net portion disposed inside the frame portion,
The granular food thermal processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the granular food is placed on the net portion. The container is
5. The container according to claim 1 , further comprising a baffle plate disposed in the lower body of the container for dispersing the steam from the steam supply section so as not to concentrate it in one place in the food placement section. Granular food heat treatment equipment. The container is
The granular food heat processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , further comprising a rotating blade disposed in the lower body of the container for diffusing steam from the steam supply section .

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